


Winning You Over

by UnfoundedIdeas



Category: Apex Legends (Video Games)
Genre: Cats, Domestic Fluff, F/F, Fluff, POV First Person, getting a cat to like you
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-28
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-12 15:41:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29761881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnfoundedIdeas/pseuds/UnfoundedIdeas
Summary: If Renee and Natalie are going to last as a couple, there's one very important heart Renee has to win.
Relationships: Wattson | Natalie Paquette/Wraith | Renee Blasey
Comments: 1
Kudos: 24





	Winning You Over

**Author's Note:**

> A one-shot and something that involves no violence or smut, this is new for me...

I’m outside of Wattson’s home, and for the first time in a while, I’m nervous. Making others like me has never been my strong suit and tonight, I have a very important task. I’ve pulled out all the stops; favorite foods, special gifts, and precious metals. If this doesn’t get me what I want, then I think all hope may be lost. I take in a deep breath and knock on the door. No matter what, I’m winning a heart tonight. 

“ _ Bonne soirée ma amour _ !” Natalie chimes. She kisses me once on each cheek, a gesture that still makes my insides flutter. 

As always, she is utterly beautiful. Her eyes sparkle like the bolts of a HAVOC, made all the brighter by that glowing smile on her face. The little brass earrings she has in almost get lost in her golden hair that she’s currently wearing in what barely qualifies as a bun. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery I suppose. I always trace my eyes over her branching scar, trying to commit it to memory so no matter what, I’ll recognize her. 

“Hey, sparky. I can already smell your souffle. It’s going to be amazing, a little birdie told me.” I’ve gotten more comfortable being flirty with her. I still suck at it, but even then, she giggles at my attempts, which is still worth it. 

“You brought everything you need?” She notices my backpack.

“Prepared and ready. Where is the little guy?” I ask and on cue, a ball of fuzzy white weaves between her ankles and looks up at me. His grey smudged face and stubby little ears are honestly cute, but-HISSSSSS-there’s that. He bears his teeth at me and scurries back inside. 

“That is very rude Nikola! Come back and apologize to Renee.” She snaps at the cat, but he sits definitely on the arm of a chair and hisses at me again. 

Natalie shrugs and takes me inside. The house is cozy, very much her. It’s an octagon with each side corresponding to a room and the master bedroom in the middle. The place is optimized for one, or maybe a couple. I’d like to explore that second option, but a certain feline is making that difficult. 

The entrance chamber has a small mudroom and leads out into the main living space. Everything has hardwood floors and her walls are covered in sticky notes scribbled with equations, letters from fans, and pictures of her and her friends. I plop myself down on the couch and stretch out. She snuggles into my arms and I can’t help but kiss her on the head. This is not allowed according to the cat who once again hisses at me. 

“I’m dating your person, get over it or one of us is going, and you can’t drive her places.” I level an accusing finger at him but yank it back when he leaps onto the coffee table and towards me. Getting bit again is not on my to-do list. 

“What would the others think if they knew you were scared of a little kitty?” She teases me, knowing that I can’t take that lying down. 

“Look at him, he’s a killing machine!” He stretches out and arches his back up high, thankfully extending his claws to prove my point. 

Natalie chuckles again and leaves my arms. This is part of the plan. While she finishes dinner, I’m alone with Nikola to force him to socialize with me. And I have a woman on the inside who told me all about his favorite foods and toys. This cat is going to love me. 

I get one more smile before she closes the door and leaves us alone. He cocks his head at the door, then turns back to me and hisses. 

“Stop that. What’d I do to you?” He jumps to the floor and begins to look for an escape. “Hey Nikola, I got your favorite snack.” I sing-song my voice. Anita would kill to get the audio of this. 

There’s a plastic tub of fresh smoked salmon in my backpack. From what Natalie told me, he goes wild for this stuff. I pop the lid and that gets his attention. His little ears perk up and twitch. 

He’s a graceful little fuzzball and jumps back onto the coffee table. That’s right, Nikola, you love salmon. And Renee has the salmon. Now love Renee dammit!

I hold a slice of the fish out to him, even I can smell how smoky and flavorful it is. This stuff costs more than the dinners I make for myself most nights and likely tastes better too. He sniffs it, probably evaluating if I’m trying to poison him. He looks at me, then the fish, then back to me. In a weird way, he has Natalie's eyes. Or more accurately, the eyes she has in the Arena. They’re the same blue but they burn like the base of a flame with an intensity that I’m glad to usually not be on the receiving end of. 

“Come on, have some fishy. You’re a good kitty, have some good food.” I’m baby talking to him, why am I doing that?

At least it gets him to take a nibble. He chews it. Yes! Take that, you’re getting snacks from me now!

Then he looks right at me and spits it out onto the table. 

“Dickhead.” I sneer at him, and I swear if this cat was capable, he’d flip me off too. “I’m leaving the salmon out if you decided to stop being mean.” 

I toss the container onto the table but he’s still looking at me, testing me with those evil little eyes. He nudges the fish with his paw and it falls on the floor. Okay, he’s definitely screwing with me now. 

“I liked you better when you ignored me. Get over yourself, are you jealous or something?” Why am I talking to this cat? It’s an animal, I probably smell wrong. But I use the same soaps and stuff as Natalie, so...is it the Void? Please, some help other versions of me. But they’re silent for once. 

Phase two replaces straight bribery with entertainment. This demonic cat loves my hair ties. Everytime I’m over here he steals them, sometimes right off my head. There’s a stash of them under Natalie’s bed that he guards like a dragon protecting gold. I’ve counted, the bastard has stolen eighty six of them. He’ll play with them for a while, batting them around and biting them for some reason, and then place them in his collection. 

My offering is ten more, a mix of brand new and used just in case he has a preference. I sprinkle them on the table in front of him, but he just stares at them blankly. Unlike the salmon, he won’t even dignify this with a bait and switch. Instead, he does something even more infuriating.

“Hey, hey! No, bad!” He lunges for the ones on my wrist, scratching with claws out. “Fine, take ‘em!” I rip them off and throw them to him but as if by magic they lose all interest. 

A few land on him and then idly fall to the ground. His energy is gone. Surrounded by a dozen of his favorite items and he’s just sitting there. I make the mistake of attempting to take them back and get swift bats on the back of my hand, thankfully sans claws. 

So I’ve just given up an exquisite piece of fish and several hair ties (which I am constantly low on) and all I have to show for it is a half chewed chunk of salmon and some new scratches on my forearm. Great, I’m losing to a cat. For half a second, I think about finding a reality where he likes me and swapping him. I’m not going to, I kind of want to, but I won’t. For some reason Natalie loves this little guy and he loves her. 

“Alright Nikola, if this doesn’t win you over, then I think it's going to be a cold war between us. And humans live longer than cats.” The idea of him killing me in my sleep pops into my head. Hopefully the Voices would warn me if he goes down that road because I wouldn’t put it passed this tiny murder machine. 

The final weapon in my arsenal of bribes is my osmium ring. Like my hair ties, he loves to play with it when I take it off. I think the density confuses his little cat brain. Unlike the ties, Natalie steals it back for me. I don’t make a big deal out of the ties, she already does enough managing of Nikola for me.

I was hoping it wouldn’t come to this. Even if I trust him not to eat it, there’s some sentimental value to this ring. It was the first thing I got for myself with my winnings, just something that I felt should be part of whoever ‘Wraith’ would be. I slip it off and roll it on the table towards him. It bumps his paw and oscillates on the glass for a seeming eternity. His head swivels to follow its roll, but he doesn't budge. And there’s another hiss. 

“Alright, you win. I’m out of tricks. I guess I can’t convince you to like me.” I sigh and hang my shoulders. “But I’m not going away. I love Natalie and as much of a pain as you try to be, you’re not standing in my way.”

Something strange happens. He sits down and rolls his head like he’s really listening to me, or maybe he’s just basking in his victory. What am I saying, he’s a cat! He’s just doing cat things.

“Listen, she loves both of us, just in different ways. She adores you, seriously, I thought ‘Nikola’ was the name of her boyfriend.” That was a rather embarrassing moment when I learned the truth. We kissed for the first time and I asked about her boyfriend. I wanted to vanish into the Void forever, but her laugh kept me here. “You’ve known Natalie for a long time, you know her heart has more than enough room for both of us. I want to like you Nikola, you’re cute, but you’re being a dick. Natalie chose the path that led to me, you have to get over that. She won’t leave you behind, I can promise that. If anything, she might be happier if we start to get along.” 

I sigh and stare at a wall to think about how I’m going to tell Natalie her cat hates me. For morale support, I take a piece of the salmon and pop it in my mouth. At least I get to enjoy this now. Something fuzzy nudges my hand when I got for a second slice. 

Nikola has his face in there. He pulls one slice out and devours it. Doesn’t even spit it out. And now he’s going back in. Did he think I poisoned it, was a taste test all it took? Either way, he’s eating all of it.  _ Oh. _ He’s just doing this to spite me again because he realized I liked it. He meows at me and headbutts my knuckles. 

“That’s all I got, except for that.” I point to the clump on the floor. 

He leaps down and gobbles that up too. Now those eyes are on me again and he’s primed to leap. I need to phase now, but he’s too fast. Any second now those claws are going to dig into my legs. He pounces and...he’s sitting there. For such a little cat, he’s surprisingly dense, those paws press hard against my thighs. Another meow. 

“What? Fine, you want something?” I pull my last hair tie out and my bun comes undone. “Fetch.” I throw it on the coffee table, but he seems uninterested. 

One paw raises and makes a few small twitches. Then, he bats at my hanging hair. His pupils dilate into what Natalie dubbed “idiot mode”. The swatting continues, somehow he’s enraptured by a lock and he bats it back and forth.

“Okay, enough of that. Off Nikola, I need to help Natalie make dinner.” But he takes the opposite approach. He bounds up the back of the couch and onto my shoulders, his body bowed over my neck. “Fine, you can come along.” 

He begins to vibrate against my neck, he’s purring. I get ambitious and raise a hand to his face. Soft fur rubs into it and his cold little nose too. My pet travels down the top of his head and over his ears. A good scratch behind the ears gets him purring louder and he droops against me. 

I stand up and he stays put. The whole way to the kitchen door he keeps on purring and his rear paw happily kicks against my back. His tail flicks back and forth down my arm. I’m starting to admit he’s cute. Okay, he’s really cute now that he’s not being evil. The smell of the souffle hits us both as I push open the door. 

Natalie is looking adorable in her Nessie adorned apron and dancing to the music in her headphones. The table is set and she’s gone all out. Candles, champagne glasses, her best china; I think she may be spoiling me again. Natalie swivels and sees us, her eyes light up and she’s smiling like an angel. 

“You two are friends! Awww, look at him, he is your new scarf! Let me grab my camera.” She hurries off and Nikola looks at me. This is the third meow in a row, I guess I did something right. That’s more or less how Natalie and I ended up together, I just stumbled my way through flirting and the first few dates, and somehow, someway, she saw something in me. 

“Smile my loves!” Natalie cheers and her camera flashes. I probably look dumbstruck and Nikola jumps down to the floor to snuggle between Natalie’s ankles. She’ll adore the picture anyways. “I like you with your hair down Renee, it’s quite pretty.” 

Dammit, I’m blushing. She’s the only person who can do this to me, and it's really bad. Anita and Loba love to get her flirting with me just to watch me squirm. 

“Thanks, Nat, someone stole all my hair ties.” I wink at Nikola and he meows back. 

Okay Nikola, maybe we can be friends. You scratch my back, I’ll scratch behind your ears. I get the strange feeling that he’s almost wingmanning for me now. If the two of us are working together now, I don’t think Natalie stands a chance. 

**Author's Note:**

> Alternate ending: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKVtRpH-2Go
> 
> As always, kudos and feedback are welcome


End file.
